Chanam had come to attend a music concert in Greater Noida on September 8 and was found dead a day later with injuries to his head near Nithari intersection.

Students from the Northeast protest at the police office in Noida against the handling of the Manipuri student death.

The police registered a case of murder under Section 302 of the IPC against unidentified persons into the mysterious death of 22-year-old Manipur student, Pravish Chanam.

Chanam had come to attend a music concert in Greater Noida on September 8 and was found dead a day later with injuries to his head near Nithari intersection.

On Saturday, the relatives of the deceased met the superintendent of police and demanded that the police register a murder complaint in the matter. “Based on the statements of the family members, his friends and circumstantial evidence obtained by the police, we registered a case of murder against unknown persons,” said Arun Kumar Singh, the superintendent of police (Noida city).

On Friday, more than 100 students from Manipur had gathered at the senior superintendent of police’s office in Surajpur and demanded a CBI inquiry into the matter.

Chanam’s family members and friends slammed at the shoddy investigation carried out by police. The body, which was found last Saturday, was registered as unidentified and was cremated 72 hours later, without informing his family members.

The SSP on Friday admitted to lapses by the police personnel in the matter and suspended five personnel from duty.

A missing person complaint was lodged at the Knowledge Park police station on September 9, but the information was not shared with the control room. Simultaneously, the personnel of Sector 20 police station failed to update the control room on the body of the man they had found in Nithari.

Ravikant Chanam, the elder brother of Pravish, said that he was admitted to district hospital on September 8 and walked out of the hospital on his own the next day morning. “He was attacked by some unknown persons, which resulted in injuries to his head,” he said.

Meanwhile, a street vendor in Nithari told police that she had offered water to Chanam around 4pm on September 9, but he collapsed without drinking it.